Event type: Comedy

All musicians are welcome to join in with this session hosted by The Caledonia.

Focussing on Irish music and its American ties, the session will go with the flow of the folks who show up.

Last orders at midnight

A fun and inclusive class for all the family, including traditional ceílí dances with a bit of set dance and sean-nós (Irish ‘old style’ tap dance) thrown in.

Movema are a multi-award winning company specialising in dances from around the world and long-time collaborators with the festival. These weekly classes are led by Director Maria Malone, who regularly calls at ceílís around Merseyside

Take this walk though Liverpool’s historic Rodney and Hope Street areas, discovering colourful characters and long-lost histories.

Who was the White Angel and where is she now? Who came for the weekend and stayed for 20 years? And, did a Bishop really get stoned?

Kelly’s Dispensary is a home-from-home for the many Irish who now live in Liverpool.

Involved in the community, sponsoring local Gaelic teams, the trad session has been a great addition to Kelly’s (and the festival) in recent years, where performers receive free food and drink

‘One of Ireland’s great singer-songwriters’, the Guardian

Dempsey, from Dublin’s north side, counts among his fans: Brian Eno and Sinéad O’Connor; Bob Dylan, U2 (with whom he has shared a bill) and Morrissey, who invited him to support him on his US tour. He has recorded a unique album, No Force on Earth, as a celebration and commemoration of the Easter Uprising of 1916 that saw the birth of the Irish Republic. In his homeland, Damien is held in the highest regard by peers and audiences and – as well as a string of number ones – he has a haul of Meteor Awards. This is a one off opportunity to see Dempsey in an intimate setting, sharing his story of this centenary year, with all the close up intensity that his acoustic performances engender

£17.50 from the Liverpool Philharmonic (+ booking fees)

2016 marks the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising and is a commemoration of one of the most tumultuous rebellions in Irish history.

Curated by Jessie Malone in association with Cork Printmakers, four artists from Belfast Print Workshop, Black Church Print Workshop, Dublin, Cork Printmakers & Limerick Printmakers have collaborated in the creation of 16, a unique box-set and exhibition of prints. Jessie Malone curated the selection of four artists from each print studio. The artist was then invited to make one image, in response to the theme of the 1916 Easter Rising; in an edition of twenty, on paper measuring sixteen inches square.

This exhibition forms a unique record of Irish contemporary art in the medium of printmaking and showcases the high standard of skills and variety of techniques currently being utilised in Ireland

Similar to the Friday and Saturday evening ‘relax and wind down’ seisiúns, these afternoon seisiúns are split in to half hour slots and given to musicians and performers who volunteered their services before the festival began.

Audiences are encouraged to bring instruments and play along with these informal, acoustic seisiúns, which are family friendly, fun and warm. Stay, have a spot to eat, browse the Irish materials library and talk with other festival guests in this truly convivial setting

Social seisiún platlist PDF available.

Described as “psycho céilí”, “whiskey-soaked folk” and just plain old “partying music”, whatever it is The Logues have made the genre their own. From their humble beginnings in a sleepy County Tyrone village, they have become one of Ireland’s most sought-after live bands

£7 from St Michael’s Irish Centre or online (+booking fee)

Free, roll up and look for Liverpool Irish Festival signs
Half-hour slots are given to local musicians and performers to perform informal, acoustic seisiúns in this post-show, ‘relax and wind down’ hour. Seisiún performers volunteered themselves in advance of the festival and have been selected for their ability, charm and capacity to share the stage with audiences, who are encouraged to sing along, bring instruments and generally take part in the activity

Social seisiún platlist PDF available.

Alsop Drama present a programme of three of short plays exploring the theme of ‘the undead’ and how Irish peasantry’s relationship between the living and dead was full of mysticism and myth.

The plays – performed in rotation – look at how superstition and folklore influenced relationships with the spirits, the living and past. Originally performed as a trinity of plays by the RSC, Alsop Drama capture the essence of rural life in early twentieth century Ireland through these well-known playwrights.

Riders to the Sea, 25 mins
John Millington Synge, b.1871-d.1909
A tragedy of a mother and the loss of her husbands and sons to the sea. Based not on the traditional conflict of human will, but on the hopeless struggle of people against the impersonal and relentless cruelty of the sea, this clearly Catholic family find themselves wary of the supernatural characteristics of natural elements, an idea ever present in Celtic paganism. Some consider this the perfect one act play

The Shadow of the Glen, 30 mins
John Millington Synge, b.1871-d.1909
A ‘tramp’ seeks shelter at the Burkes’ isolated farmhouse, finding Nora tending to the corpse of Dan. Nora goes to find Michael, whilst Dan reveals his death is a mere ruse to the ‘tramp’. Playing dead again on her return, Dan leaps up in protest when Michael proposes to Nora. Dan kicks Nora out, leaving her to wander the roads with the ‘tramp’ who promises her a life of freedom

Purgatory, 15 mins
William Butler Yeats, b.1865-1939
A family saga of decline and fall told through its two remaining members: an Old Man (the father) and a Boy (his sixteen-year-old son). It is set outside the former family home, which the Old Man’s father had drunkenly burned down, leading him to kill his father as the building perished. Tonight, the Old Man tells the Boy, is the anniversary of his mother’s wedding night…This was the night on which he was conceived